


Cleave and Cement

by peoriapeoria



Series: Fitter of the Species [28]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Spoilers, Amputation, Changing roles, Ensemble Cast, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Inhuman Skye | Daisy Johnson, Jasper Sitwell is Not Hydra, Kree (Marvel), Mother-Daughter Relationship, Not Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Compliant, Obsession, Team as Family, Undercover Jemma Simmons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 13:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13077405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: Skye looked at the rock face sliding into the valley. Her hands. She did that."Your arms were breaking because you turned your power inward. Repression is not control. Control is control." Jiaying said.That was a horrendous amount of power to wield. "What sort of control is equal tothat, sufficient forthat?!"Skye has been changed by the Kree city and Phil Coulson rejoins Melinda May's team in the aftermath.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to majoline, whose betaing and gammaing are a superpower.

_Previously on Agents of SHIELD_

May looked out the windscreen, lights casting shadows around her.

"Are we there yet?" Skye crouched to her right, one hand braced on her seatback.

May fought the smile. "Don't make me turn this bus around."

Skye looked up, the towers of Manhattan cliffs on either side. "I'm just wondering how you're going to park."

The touring bus rolled down 42nd street.

"I have some ideas." The male voice came over their intercom. "Please merge right and turn at Lexington. Skye, would you select new side panels?"

"Who are you?" May did merge and turn. Their goal was Avengers Tower but they weren't going to be able to parallel park.

"Agent May," a woman's voice came on, "this is Darcy Lewis. Coulson will introduce you, but let JARVIS get your bus berthed first. He'll direct your team to the Tower, too."

May grinned and asked, "Control, guide me in."

"My pleasure." The voice directed her towards a parking garage with the necessary overhead clearance, presumably raising the grill as she approached.

May stepped onto the pavement and the team started disembarking. She was the only one with her bag, she noticed. Lights brightened. "Follow me." She strode the path, wary. Skye followed to one side, Fitz and Hartley next, Tripp and Mack behind. She begrudged Hunter bailing, not that they weren't perfectly capable without him.

She looked at the open elevator.

"Please. The food is en route." Again the voice Darcy Lewis had named JARVIS, now coming from the elevator speakers.

Mack spoke. "Time to see the man behind the curtain."

She and the team got into the elevator. The door closed on them.

\---------------------

Phil Coulson stood in the common room, wondering why JARVIS had called him there. Before he could voice the question the elevator opened.

"AC!" Skye bounded out of the elevator and hugged him.

Phil hugged her back, looking over at the rest. He noted that Isabelle Hartley was short a left arm, amputated above the elbow. Alphonso Mackenzie was not Jemma. "Where's Simmons?" he directed the query to May.

"She's taking some time."

Phil could understand that. "Fitz, you're looking better." He'd have to, he'd been unconscious the last time. May was flashing him a warning look. He detached Skye to properly greet the rest of the team.

The elevator opened again, this time offering a food bot and Clint. "We meet again." Clint tapped a hand on May's arm, bumped knuckles with Tripp. "Rest of the Avengers will be incoming."

"Thor?" May asked.

Skye looked at him too.

"You'll have to settle for Midgardian heroes today, I fear." He flexed, and looked at Phil.

In short order Natasha, Steve, Sam and Bruce arrived. Phil noticed Fitz holding back from Banner, which struck him odd; it wasn't like biochemistry was outside his keen if more Simmons' speciality.

They were tucked into the food when Darcy appeared. She filled a plate and proceeded to question May and Skye. It didn't sound too foreboding; trust was double-edged, as he was certain the three women could find trouble and handle it besides.

Tripp had gravitated to Sam and was peppering him with questions about D.C. Natural enough considering he and Simmons had been in the Triskelion when Hydra showed their hand as Insight almost went live. 

Hartley had moved to Mackenzie's right side, questioning Steve as she ate.

Phil stood and headed for the outside deck.

May followed him. "We found an 084." Melinda sighed. "We found the 084."

Phil turned. The 084 classification dated to the SSR. After the war, securing all the artifacts Schmidt had pillaged had been a priority. "What was it?"

"It turns people into stone. That's how Hartley lost her arm, Hunter had to field amputate."

That, it wasn't the most disturbing thing, but Phil pursed his lips. "So it doesn't happen all at once." That alternative hardly bore considering.

May continued. "It's fast. We think we know how to find the city."

"Oh." The city a long dead alien wanted to reach so badly it had driven people mad.

"Fitz believes he can find the city."

The way she said it, May wasn't convinced.

Phil asked, "What's wrong?"

She answered, "I'm going to focus on what's right, that Simmons and Fitz survived. UHF."

Phil chuckled. Fury might rib him on his love for spy craft artifacts, but he'd heard their scientists.


	2. Chapter 2

_Currently_

"You've done the right thing, isolating her and calling me. I'll head straight there." Phil closed the channel with May. He needed to pack, needed to tell Clint he was going away. "JARVIS-"

"He'll be meeting you on your floor."

"Thank you."

"I've updated your tablet with seismic records, satellite and transit timetables."

Phil smiled. "Thanks."

He stepped out of the elevator and made for his dressing room. He pulled out a travel softsider and a suit bag. He started packing.

"You're going?" Clint posed in the doorway, one hand high above his head on the frame. Consumant showman.

Phil answered, still packing. "They got into the City. Skye, she causes earthquakes."

Clint opened his mouth, thoughts chasing over his face. "Things keep getting stranger. That's the new SOP, yeah?" He pushed off from the doorway.

Phil sighed. "Probably." He met Clint, docking loosely, hands on each other's hips. "I'm, going to stay with them, May's team, for awhile." Saying good-bye was harder after Loki.

"Your team. Your other team. Call me if you need re-enforcements. Or are lonely."

"Never doubt that." He kissed Clint, then pulled back. He finished packing, Phil had done this often enough. He leaned back as Clint hugged him from behind, chin hooked over his shoulder. Phil raised his arm, elbow bent and cupped the back of Clint's head in his hand. 

He spun still palming Clint's head, leaning in to kiss just beside Clint's mouth. Clint turned slightly, centering the kiss.

"Get out of here and come back sooner." Clint moved him arms-reach and stepped back.

\-----------------

"This summer camp sucks." It wasn't what he'd expected Skye to say, and it was perfectly Skye to say.

"What do you know about summer camp that didn't come from media? May I come in?"

"Sure." She waved her hands, wearing mitts. "It is good seeing you, rustication or not."

"Looks can be deceiving." Phil made a circuit, opening access panels as he went, naming revealed systems. "This is a top-notch bolt-hole. It's not a mere safe house, it's a high-tier fall back retrenchment."

"Why are you showing me this?" She looked over everything, scanning, categorizing, constructing hypotheticals.

Phil faced Skye. "You're not a prisoner. Melinda brought you here to keep you safe, let you find your footing. Heal."

"Yeah?" Her fight facade drained. "He says he's my father. All I ever wanted was parents and a monster says he's my father."

Phil stepped forward and embraced Skye. "You forgave SHIELD for ripping you away as a child time after time. You by example led me to reframe the Guest House. You've got this. Maybe not this moment; you will. I'm so proud of you." He let her sob. He couldn't solve what was wrong. Phil knew he didn't have to. Having her trust didn't make him weak.

Skye's jag slowed, her breathing evened. She pulled away and he let her slip back.

"New sort of cast?" Phil knew Jemma had rejoined the team, had before they breached the city.

"Something like that. You know I've been changed." Skye tentative demonstrated her need to recuperate.

"Like I didn't know you could move the world?" He paused for her dismissing sound. "Might try smaller pieces at a time, for starters."

"That's AC. How do you stay so chill?"

Phil set the target. "Practice."

Skye followed through, "We're pretty far from Carnegie Hall."

"True." Phil considered her, and the bigger picture. "I need to check in with the rest of the team. You okay on your own for awhile?"

"Help me close up all of this. It was good for you to come." Skye smiled, wryly.

Phil smiled back and started shutting away the spy technology, putting the cabin back into its stealth configuration. "There is one more thing I didn't show you." He pressed a spring lock, revealing a secret shelf of books.

"Le Carre? That's meta."

\----------------------

"It's good to see you, sir." Talking was still hard, but Fitz had the practice for that sentence. He really hadn't questioned if Agent Coulson would join them. Skye needed what the team couldn't provide. Fitz had tried. He didn't know what Jemma was thinking. He could start a sentence and she had known just what he meant, before Ward tried to kill them. He'd been able to do the same. Now-

"Mutual. You've accomplished a lot; the breaching of the satellite control- How are you?"

"Adjusting." He was different, not broken. If only that was true of him and Simmons.

Coulson nodded. "That's the biggest part, not just of the job, but of life."

"How are the Avengers?" Coulson had explained why he needed to leave them, once the compulsion to find the City was broken. He wondered that Hawkeye only joined them the one time.

Coulson smiled. "They're good. It's good not being deployed." He looked around the lab. "I need to check in with May. We'll talk more later."

Fitz nodded.

\----------------------

Bobbi moved through her forms in the small gym they'd made inside the SSR satellite office. Since she'd taken the chance that loyal SHIELD agents could hold the Iliad against the HYDRA traitors, she'd been off-script.

Infiltrating HYDRA had almost been too easy- they were very willing to secure SHIELD operatives at discounted rates. Convincing them she was an opportunist instead of a double agent-- they were eager to believe that narrative, though they'd insisted on certain sureties. She'd had to give up safe-house locations. It had been a calculated risk, not knowing if she was giving someone up or not.

Dr. Simmons had been a surprise. She had read several of the woman's papers. It was disappointing to find her in HYDRA. Bobbi kept an eye on her, which was how she'd figured out Simmons was undercover ahead of HYDRA. Getting Jemma out with her information took precedent.

Had the Index just been a personal shopper service for HYDRA? SHIELD had thought they were protecting the public, but they'd marked people 'of interest' and done little to safeguard them. They hadn't even protected themselves.

"Want a sparring partner?" Antoine Triplett stood in the doorway.

"Bring it." Thinking sometimes needed to take a break.

\----------------------

Melinda sat in her office, a panel light hung high on the wall. Funny how a lighted basement, even a simulated one, felt different than a bunker. Should they have gone to the City? It had seemed important, the auto-mania writing that was a map, something so important it transcended death. Phil was one of two survivors of the Guest House. Learning more--

At what cost? Skye's bones were being shattered apart. Jemma couldn't say why Raina and Skye had such different results. G.H. 325? They hadn't explored the city, they had more questions not answers.

"Phil." She'd considered making him clear his throat, but his shoes weren't that quiet.

"How's your team? How are you?"

"Bigger. Peachy, I'm running a cell of a terrorist organization."

"Framed that way--"

May interrupted. "Nice choice of words. So, who else is coming back from the dead?"

"You've caught the hearing."

She'd be more exasperated if she didn't know Phil so well. "Phil, you've met my mom." She smiled at the scant tremor Phil tamped down.

"Technically, neither of them were dead. That's my distinction, currently." Phil shifted. "How did we not know Cal could be Skye's father?"

"We missed other things much closer. He was hardly acting like it. Records are poor when a whole village is slaughtered." She tilted her head. "His real name is Calvin Johnson. He was supposed to be in China only for weeks. He married his translator, Jiaying."

"Skye's mother."

"Skye's mother. Or, rather, Daisy Johnson's mother." She watched Phil wrap his company man around him.

"She named herself, she'll be the one to make any changes."

\---------------

Skye was reading. Not the Le Carre, she wanted escapism which here meant she was reading a beekeeping manual. It seemed more promising than a treatise on landscaping printed before the Great Depression. Depending on how long she was here, she might read about the fruit trees.

Powers. She'd never expected to be an Agent of SHIELD and now she had powers. Her training had given her skills, ways of seeing the world that meant she could make a difference. Powers. Mike. 

She felt, it was a vibration, not one she was causing. Skye set the book aside. A man popped into existence, blue light dissipating. He had no eyes. Just skin running from his hairline and down either side of his nose. "Who are you?"

"More important is who you are. You're one of us, and you will need training. My name is Gordon."

"Gordon." Had he had eyes? "Why should I go anywhere with you?" She'd been trying to stop Raina.

"Understandable wariness. Why acquiesce to this quarantine? You aren't accepted here."

"What makes you say that?" Skye realized that conceded his argument.

"Can you use your powers? Are they cuffs; what is suppressing your gift?"

"I fractured my arms. My friend made me gloves." Skye wondered how he knew, off as he was.

"Are you sure she's your friend?" The blue light flashed and he was gone.

 

\---------------

Mack took out a bandana and wiped his face. At least the asbestos so far was constrained to the floor tiles. He'd had to put in a snap-together floor for Fitz, he still had some coordination problems and dropped tools occasionally.

He was tempted to rewire, but he honestly didn't know how long they were staying. He'd ran cable to bypass and provided grounded plugs. It wasn't pretty. The team was small enough and smart enough to stay away from the wall outlets.

It wasn't as small as it had been. Dr. Simmons had returned with Bobbi. It was only a matter of time before Fitz and Simmons had a conversation long overdue. He fully intended to stay as far away from it as he could.

He considered that no man saw every side of a beloved, and no one was ever at their best post-undercover work. Add in betrayal, attempted drowning-- Skye needed her friend, and Mack wasn't sure she'd get that.

For now, they'd have to see where Skye's seismic powers led, besides hairline fractures. The city had been flooded as a deterrent- HYDRA could still get in there, but at a greater cost and difficulty.

\--------------

"Yes, I'm wearing the gloves." They didn't have fingers but Jemma did make them, she could call them what she wanted.

Jemma smiled on the screen. "Good. The electrical charge will speed your healing, your arms will be stronger, like a martial artist's."

Regular Iron Fist. "You and Fitz good?" There were enough things in the air Jemma could take the question as she liked.

"He hid your genetic change for reasons. It wasn't the best decision, we could have started your treatment sooner, but it's understandable."

That, that-- well, you ask a question because you don't know the answer. Sometimes the truth stings. "What about his revelation?"

"He's not mentioned it again." Jemma's smile was so tight she might have to change a string.

Skye took that as her signal to back off. It wasn't like Fitz would just forget- maybe he could forget telling Jemma, but even that was a statistically vanishing chance. "Figure out which way is up." She really wasn't sure how Jemma felt about the possible final confession.

"Keep wearing the gloves. Your fractures are hairline, but they could advance, you could have pieces calve off." Jemma gave a very disapproving look

Skye wasn't a fan of that idea either. "Roger that, gloves on." She crossed her forearms in front of her.

"Talk to you again when I've got more." Jemma closed the channel.

Skye went back to the book of Hoyle. Who knew there were so many kinds of solitaire? She missed the team.

\--------------

Blue light manifested, two men in the center. Quickly Gordon stepped away and blue light wrapped him again. He was gone.

Cal looked around the room. The scant light came from holes in the rock above. The room had no door. He faced the small inset of one-way mirror, high on the wall. "You should see her. She has your spirit."

Their Daisy was grown up. She'd been just a baby when he went after Jiaying. She wasn't with the family where he'd left her, when he'd chased after Reinhardt. A shredded doll, that's what his wife had been when he found her. He'd repaired her best that he could with so many pieces missing. So many sutures.

She'd lived. It was his responsibility to ensure her survival. He'd done what was necessary. Their daughter was gone when they returned. Waste not want not.

They spent years looking for Daisy. Shield took her. Shield had a worm. Rising Tide. Funny how all the loose ends tied themselves together, that Raina and Daisy should cross paths. And now, Jiaying could help their daughter, as she'd helped so many others. 

\--------------

Phil looked at the door's pebbled glass and decided he'd open it a crack and decide from there how to precede. He knocked once he could see Simmons wasn't holding anything or precariously placed.

"Come in!" She smiled. "I've been meaning to tell you something."

He stepped inside and closed the door. He wasn't used to this unpairing, the absence of tandem lab stations.

"I think the term "Gifted" has failed, in being too broad and yet insufficient. I propose that "Enhanced" be used for people like Mike Peterson and Susan Richards, and "Gifted" be reserved for cases like Chan Ho Yin or Bobby Drake."

He considered where he fit in this schema. "Or Skye?"

"And Skye." Jemma's voice hitched a little.

"I see some merit in the change of terminology, but I will point out the ends of the Index and Insight."

"Those were hardly the same."

"Acknowledged. The difference is immaterial to those harmed; the Index killed more people than Insight, despite better intentions." Phil let himself out of the lab.

\--------------

"We've got to go!" Skye ran at Gordon as the strike team tried to overload the security parameter. Their beam weapons got through, bent wild. The world winked out.

The world winked back. Oh. They were in a town, like a market village. That travel effect was... She looked Gordon. "Where are we?"

"Welcome to Afterlife. It's, not the best translation. It's stuck however."

Skye watched a knot of children rush past kicking a ball between them. Other than the shorts several of the boys were wearing they could be from any progressive subdivision.

"Translation?"

"Normally, before someone undergoes Terrigenesis they would have prepared here, or one of the other enclaves. Because of Jiaying this one is easier for English speakers to become part of the community. Any English speakers."

It was unnerving how the few people she saw outside their homes watched her. "Did you bring Raina here? She's dangerous, I mean even without powers she's dangerous. With them-"

"She's scared. Many families retained only fairytales."

Skye considered the swath Raina had mowed to this conclusion. Grimm. "And those without any stories at all?"

"I suppose they'd become lost in the population. Jiaying will tell you more, as she will be your mentor. You're lucky."

\--------------

Fitz looked at the readout. "Mack." Seconds counted and expressing himself was worst when he was stressed, time-crunched.

Mack stepped behind the console, looking past Fitz's shoulder. "HYDRA have attacked Skye's location. There's a reading, that can't be right."

Simmons rattled off a number.

"Yeah, within standard deviation of that." Mack affirmed. "What just happened?"

Simmon's answered, "We've had that happening during Skye's stay, and I found one that happened after the City was flooded." She reached the workstation. "May I?" Fitz got out of his seat and she sat.

Jemma looked over the information. "I think Skye wasn't still there for their assault. These are very similar to the readings after the City. I'm going to run an analysis to see where they go to."

Fitz smiled, then looked to Mack.


	3. Chapter 3

Skye looked at the rock face sliding into the valley. Her hands. She did that.

"Your arms were breaking because you turned your power inward. Repression is not control. Control is control." Jiaying said.

That was a horrendous amount of power to wield. "What sort of control is equal to that, sufficient for that?!"

"It is a lot, for someone that wasn't expecting anything like this." Jiaying gestured towards the gauntlets. "Those are ingenious. They give you the ability to relax. But control, real control, comes from within. Put them on. I'm going to tell you why we don't depend on the Cities."

Skye strapped on the mitts.

"We're weapons. What happens to weapons no longer needed or no longer controlled?" She looked at Skye.

"You break them, so they can't be turned to new targets." Skye had a new appreciation for the events in D.C. before Falcon and Captain America stopped Insight.

Jiaying replied, "You are very much correct. The City will have sent a message, flooding it would not have stopped it. They will know." 

"Then why use the Diviners?" Skye thought of Gordon, even Raina.

"Ignoring power is no protection. What has been wrought will bring wrath whether embraced or denied. This way, there is a chance to fight back. We train before seeking the mist. We confront ourselves and our powers after, develop the will to use and refrain. This moment was coming for eons."

"Prophecy?" Skye distrusted the very portentousness.

"They've come before. They didn't find everyone. This is how we learned not to use the Cities. How we chose to take the Diviners. Not everyone is suited for power. Skye, I believe you are. Which is good, because you are very powerful." Jiaying looked across the valley, snow resettling on the reduced slope.

\--------------

"I don't like it, Phil. That is too far to go without more intel," Melinda said.

"The quinjet I brought doesn't need fuel."

Melinda looked at Phil. He was more obsessed than he'd been in the grip of carving the City into walls. "A mountainside slid into a valley." There was building seismic activity, not matching anything in nature, before it happened. Training, even this different, was training. "We would know if Skye was in distress. Right now we stay put until we have an objective."

"You're right." He leaned against the edge of her desk. "We should figure out which HYDRA attacked the bolt-hole. They knew something."

Melinda smiled. That was the Phil she knew. "I'll put the team on it."

He turned and smiled back. "I'll, find a way to be useful."

\--------------

"Doctor Daniel Whitehall." Bobbi handed the printed copy of his picture to Melinda. "He was at the Hydra Laboratories." She peeled off another page, "Sunil Bakshi, his second in command. Or, was."

"Was?" Phil looked at the picture, then swapped with May.

"He's gone missing. Either he pressed too hard, or he's gone into hiding to make his bid from there."

"He's not HYDRA's usual." Melinda looked at the photo.

Phil disagreed. "No, he is. Someone convinced of his own exceptionalism and heedless of how many bodies it takes to climb to the top." He'd been reading various channels of intel on HYDRA while with the Avengers Initiative.

Bobbi grinned. "You're good. Likely he grew up in the Southall district; definitely London. Joined Her Majesty's military and was severed for 'undisclosed' reasons. Became a private contractor." Bobbi continue her briefing.

"This faction is who went after Skye?" Phil asked.

"Yes. There's something you both should see from Baron von Strucker's records." Bobbi handed them another page.

"That's uncanny." Phil looked at Melinda, who'd said it in near unison.

"What?" Fitz asked.

Phil looked at Melinda. She rolled her eyes at him.

Phil explained. "Agent Peggy Carter secured the original 084. Werner Reinhardt was the head of the facility. His crimes were such that he was sent to the Rat." Phil showed the picture, of men in German uniforms, the Hydra emblems prominent.

"How is that possible?" Fitz held Whitehall's picture next to it. Two pictures, taken seventy years or so apart, spitting images.

"Family resemblance?" Simmons offered.

Phil asked, "Location, Agent Morse."

"Near Salem, Missouri." she answered.

May looked at Phil. "Bird's up in ten minutes."

\--------------

"Who are you?" Skye looked at the man, his hair a touch wild.

"London. Jiaying sends her regrets for not being able to make dinner with you. Perhaps I can assist; she is very busy, pulled in many directions."

"London." She judged he was American, mostly by his lack of a British accent. He reminded her a little of Dr. Banner, younger and blacker though.

"Better than my cousin Roman." He smiled infectiously.

He was joking, cousin or no. "So, what are you here for?"

"Outside of dinner? I'm electric. No, seriously. I'm the most recent approved Inhuman. Oh, no one told you that? Don't worry about it; we are human. We're just descendents of escaped lab experiments."

"You say that like it's not a problem." Skye thought she understood Coulson's reaction to G.H. 325, now. Afterlife. Inhuman. They needed to reconsider their branding.

"In the end, it's just an extreme within the human condition. People are the original genetically modified organisms. Inhumans, well, not 100% Terran sourcing. We should eat." He pulled on a knob, lifting a compartment with two plates of hot food.

Skye pulled one to herself. It did look good. She waited for him to nod. Skye took a bite. It was hot, spicy. Flavorful. She had another bite. "London, maybe you can better explain just how Afterlife works, what the Terrigenesis is."

"For us it is a process. We're identified, screened, trained and then roll the dice. It's not without trepidation, if you actually know what you're doing."

"Yet people do it." Skye egged him on.

"People are eager to seek power. It's what the first flint was, the first sewing needle; the power to shape one's world. Power in of itself-- it's the ends and the means to which it is put, that decides between good and evil." London ate.

Skye mulled that over as she chewed. "Why did you do it?" She hadn't a clue, when she went after Raina.

"There is another factor to the age normal for induction." He ate,then spoke. "Old enough to understand, young enough to adapt and reckless of the possible repercussions." He paused his talk, clearly thinking as he chewed. "I've seen Raina, I cannot say why she and you are not switched. Gordon has enviable powers, but he had no way to know he was seeing his last sunset. I was perhaps a little older than ideal, or perhaps just immature enough to still take a chance while having the wisdom to contextualize it. The Kree will be coming."

Skye thought of the Guest House, of Coulson, of Garrett. Ward. Her father. "What do you know of the Kree. Know, not suspect."

\--------------

Tripp sat down next to Coulson. "What's he like?" He continued, "Barnes, does he know his sister is still alive?"

Coulson was surprised. Oh, it was a good poker face; Tripp was good at poker, Garrett excepted.

Tripp continued, "Legacy." It wasn't just about trunks of old spy gear, not even about stories. Family. His grandfather and his brothers had been joined by the War. Jacques and Monty couldn't be as present, but Jim, Gabe and Dugan stirred the pot well before he was born. That had included Becca, who'd lost one brother and gained five more.

The pause grew long. "So, Captain America, does she do birthday parties?" Tripp trusted the team. But some ties were so precious, one didn't risk them. Just like he'd been surprised to learn Captain America was a woman, along with everyone that hadn't been there. Now, the world and he knew the modern day and the World War Two model were one in the same.

Coulson responded, "He's a good man. Been through a lot."

Tripp nodded. He'd caught up with the hearing. Even the digest was brutal, if you could put the fear, the waiting, the planning back in. Becca would know. He was incommunicado what with SHIELD's fall. This was the hardest part, not being there for family and knowing their need.

\--------------

Raina brought her hands almost to her face, stopping herself in time. The fine barbs hurt both the flesh they embedded in and her skin where they pulled out. Her vision, of depopulated cities and Exceptions striding in and out of buildings shocked her. Most of them weren't obvious in their affliction and yet in her mind she could tell they'd evolved.

Thorns. Long ones grew from her scalp, hiding in her hair. Her eyebrows and a line along each cheek were shorter thorns, more like those of rose. Her limbs were covered with a mix of those and the hair-like barbs. Only her palms and the soles of her feet were free. She'd bled from rubbing against herself.

The Visions were worse. If only she could pluck them out.

\---------------

Cal watched Gordon and Jiaying teleport in, Gordon disappearing in a coil of blue. "Nice for you to visit."

"I've brought food." She picked a bit of floor and unpacked, a low bowl for each of them with porcelain spoons and pairs of chopsticks. "Help yourself."

"No bao?" He ladled stew into his bowl. It wasn't lost on him she'd brought no metal implements.

"The pierogi are good. You found her; you vowed you would and you have. She's beautiful."

"Daisy takes after you." He used his chopsticks to lift a pierogi to his mouth and took a bite. He dipped it into his stew as he chewed and took another bite. Better.

"Cal, you have no idea what you've set into motion. We haven't used the Cities in centuries for a reason."

"New York was invaded; they weren't successful. The aliens were stopped."

"The Chitauri are not the Kree. New York could be a fluke. Have you considered that?"

"How many generations separate the Kree from living memory? What was humanity like then; we've progressed."

"'We' have bigger, more expensive ways to kill each other. Can you call that progress? Raina trusted you and you strung her along. You promised her unattainable things for what end? There are things that can't be fixed."

"Our family can. You, me, Daisy."

Jiaying ate silently. That was a good sign. He ate his food too. He'd missed her. She was so beautiful, still after the years, scars notwithstanding. He helped her empty the containers. "Is there dessert?"

"Yes, Cal. I've not forgotten." She opened the last container.

"What are they?" The rectangles were purple.

"Ube ice cream sandwiches."

He took one and bit into it. "They're good. Has Daisy tried them?"

"Cal, you're going home. You can't stay here."

Gordon entered in a blue light and disappeared with Cal.

Jiaying picked out the remaining sweet.

\--------------

It would be wrong to say he missed fieldwork and yet there was some truth to it. They'd made a hard stealth insert, caving HYDRA defense at the base. Bobbi and Jemma took to secure research data, May was with Mack and Fitz on toy run, while Tripp and he swept.

Modern HYDRA didn't give out cyanide teeth; not to grunts anyway and that's what he was sweeping, least they make for the two teams. He was running low on zip ties and sedation stickers. They'd have to make a scrambled call to Talbot after this was done.

He was pulling the tail tight as he held up the unconscious prisoner when the bullet hit. Kill shot right through the prisoner. He looked down the sightline, his weapon a lifetime away in its holster.

Whitehall stepped into the dim light. "How does it feel to die for trivia? If you had just killed him you wouldn't have your hands full."

"How are you even still alive?" It was both a good question, and a chance for a distracting monologue.

"I carved out a new lease on life." He faded out of existence before his words.

May stepped out. "You can drop the body. Wouldn't even made a good shield."

Phil dropped the former prisoner. "What did you use?"

May displayed the weapon, barrel pointed away. "Simmons refined it."

"Do you have another weapon?" Phil asked.

May nodded.

"Please, don't use that again, unless you have to." 

May swapped it for a night-night.

"Where are Mack and Fitz?" Phil kept his eyes open, while he policed for anything the prisoners might use if they woke.

"Wiring up explosives. I think you're sitting on the shopping spree," Melinda answered. "Mostly the explosives are about disposing of the explosives."

At least he wouldn't be sitting on them. That was only fun going into the field. He missed certain things too much.

\--------------

Gordon stumbled as he arrived in Afterlife. He pulled out a kerchief and applied pressure to the small wound. He walked a few steps then sat down. Cal had clocked him in pique, and it had him unsettled to where he was uncertain of his placement.

He wanted to disbelieve Cal, but the evidence collaborated that Skye was Jiaying's daughter. It explained why Jiaying had been so involved with Cal.

It shouldn't matter. It was Cal that set the Terrigenesis into motion, not Jiaying. Skye had discipline, an admirable amount for having this power thrust upon her. He stood with some difficulty. He needed to check on Raina.

He swayed. Maybe, in the morning might be soon enough.

\--------------

"You wanted to see me?" Jemma stood at the door of Coulson's concise office.

"Come in, close the door. Coffee?"

Jemma shook her head as she sat. She watched him pour a little into his mug from the thermo-carafe.

Coulson asked, "How did you find undercover work?"

"It was challenging." She watched him nod, sip coffee.

"When SHIELD was an intact organization, there would have been an evaluation after an agent's deep assignment. Especially one where the agent wasn't in a role."

"I'm fine." Jemma retorted.

"There also would have been counseling after a near-death experience, injury of a co-agent on an assignment, or in the event of a double-agent."

"May I be blunt?" She waited for Coulson's nod. "SHIELD counseling never noticed John Garrett or Grant Ward."

Coulson sat down his mug. "That is true. And that's why I want to do better by you." He leaned forward. "Talk to me. I asked you and Fitz to join my team, and things didn't shape up they way I expected them to."

"That's hardly your fault." Jemma put the best face on it.

"But it is." Coulson contradicted. "I knew what Ward's family was like and I didn't question John's involvement or Grant's suitability as a field agent."

It was refreshing, the acknowledgement. Hydra wasn't limited to either of them; it had been a canker taking entire divisions. Jemma squared herself. "There were no safe places when SHIELD fell from within. Yes, it hurt learning we'd harbored an enemy, one that knew us. That's a risk."

Coulson continued. "There are risks associated with undercover work, being embedded as an alternate self. It is possible to lose the distinction between what you believe and the lies you must reflect."

"You think I've been turned. Make no mistake, I am one hundred percent against HYDRA."

"I don't doubt that." He paused. "Did, did Fitz's injury, his declaration before his injury, play a role in you seeking undercover assignment?"

"I was interfering with his recovery." Jemma stated. "I didn't get to the surface fast enough." He'd given her the last blast of oxygen. He said he wasn't a strong swimmer, that she was the surer chance. Not a sure enough chance. He'd needed that oxygen.

Agent Coulson lay his hand palm up on his desk. Jemma looked at it. She remembered Director Fury's hand, that she saw reach down. That she grabbed as she held onto Fitz.


	4. Chapter 4

"You had him and sent him back!" Skye couldn't believe it. "Don't you know how dangerous he is? He tried killing a man just to get away; it wouldn't have been 'try' except we had a doctor of our own." Skye brushed her hair out of her face.

Jiaying answered, "More than anyone I know what Cal is capable of. He is not one of us, and my responsibility is to Afterlife and the Inhumans."

"Milwaukee. You sent him to Milwaukee." Skye wasn't getting through to Jiaying. "I've got to go after him!"

"You still have training."

"I'm a Shield agent and he's a monster."

"He's your father."

Skye came up short. "Why? Why send him away? Because he's a killer? That doesn't help anyone out there!"

"I sent him away, because I can't change him. He doesn't see where he went wrong. So, I did what I should have so long ago and washed my hands of him."

"What? What does that even mean?"

"Haven't you wondered how he knows about us, how we make the transition? He knows because I told him."

Skye looked at Jiaying. Why would she have done such a thing?

Jiaying paused, looked at Skye. "He's not one of us, you think he's an Inhuman. He's a science experiment, one without any controls. He became unhinged a very long time ago, and I was too blind to see it for years. I did, and I stopped following him, came back to do what I know."

"Huh?" Skye had lost the thread of this conversation, it was utterly derailed.

"You're not an Inhuman because of Cal, but through your mother." Jiaying looked at Skye. "I'm your mother."

"What? Why?" She'd once thought Agent May could be her mother. This reversal was numbing.

"It needs to be a secret. There have been times, parents have done things, pushed their children ahead when they weren't right, too young. You, broke the rules, because of Cal but if it's known you're my daughter--"

"Then I should go. He needs to be stopped. I can get my friends to help."

Jiaying smiled. "You have grown up well. I wish I'd had a part in that."

\----------------------

"Come in, Phil!" May almost missed him breezing in and out. Doors were good, except with this new knocking. That he used to have a door and liked people knocking, it was weird from the other side. "Spit it out."

"How did Simmons end up undercover in HYDRA?"

"This is what you're coming to me with?" It was a valid question, one she'd asked herself on several occasions. "The intel was important, I didn't know Mockingbird was already in, and Fitz was just-- She needed to prove herself to herself. Being helpless, being betrayed... I made the call."

Phil nodded. "She did good work. I'm just, I'm probably overreaching. I do that. I know it, and I try to help the right way. The wrong way I've done too much."

"Can't gainsay that, but it goes well around." She stood, walking around her desk. "I didn't want to return to the field. Nick asked me to as a personal favor, to you. I know it was the wrong way to go about it but I can't think of what the right way was. I'm selfish enough to like having you here and not in your grave I digged up."

Phil tilted his head back and forth. "I'll grant you that one. I'm partial to my situation."

Melinda grinned. Honeymoon Hawkeye was no hardship, she was sure. "I'm glad you're getting the second chance. I didn't know Barton hadn't seen you."

"Thanks."

The quiet between them stretched. Too many lies between friends. She wasn't sure what was going to happen, but it was going to be big.

Melinda spoke. "I didn't kill those men in Bahrain." She looked Phil in the eye. "I never said I didn't because they were dead, dying, when I got there. She was killing them. Their fear made her stronger, and there was a SHIELD team coming." May could still see her, a little girl. Her radio was broken.

"There was no cross-fire." Phil said it softly.

"I killed her because there was no way to stop her. She'd killed her mother too, with the last of the men." Such a lost, lost little girl.

"Did you tell Andrew?" Phil asked.

"How could I?" They'd been planning to start a family. She'd killed a little girl. She'd might have had a little girl and she'd killed just a baby.

She pushed into the embrace, let Phil hold her. Not the Cavalry. She was anything but.

\----------------------

"Daisy! If I'd known you were coming, I'd have cleaned!"

Skye looked around. It'd have taken weeks of notice to do any good on this dump. "How long has this place been empty?"

"I've been back from time to time. Lost the last tenants a few years ago, the neighborhood isn't what it used to be."

"Tenants? You own this dump?"

"I have let the place go, I'll admit. This used to be my practice. I hadn't expected to be gone very long, but then I couldn't have expected your mother. You, we were so looking forward to you. I, obstetrics wasn't my field, and you hadn't turned. I went to the farmer that had the village truck, but my Chinese, it hadn't gotten much better. There was a terrible storm. By the time I got back with the truck it was clear we weren't going anywhere. Somehow she managed, and we were a family until Werner Reinhardt found her."

"Jiaying. Who's Reinhardt?"

"What's Reinhardt? Trash, utter trash. They came for her, I hid you and I went after them. You weren't still there when we came back. It took time to come back, to find her. I found her. It took so long to put her back together. I had my father's medical bag, he'd been in World War II and I sewed her back together. He'd torn her apart, thrown her out in the woods."

"What? Jiaying is alive." Cal wasn't just crazy like a fox.

"He had found her during the war, had found Diviners during the war. Hydra only went underground and then they brought him out from under his rock."

"That's insane. She'd have to be a hundred years old."

"You're thinking too limitedly. She had stayed young by absorbing the last lifeforce of elders that sacrificed themselves for the purpose. Generations had done that before he found her the first time. He'd become an old man, and she still retained her bloom. He carved her to ribbons. She was an empty, rent sack."

It was a gruesome story. "How is my mother alive? You're a killer, not a miracle worker."

"Oh, I am. I sewed her back together and I filled her up. Deer, a hiker, that was enough to leave Austria. It took more than that for her to regrow what was lost. Stolen."

"You killed the village!" It was now clear. The report said she'd been found, a village all dead, she the only survivor. Maybe someone had left and returned with her, then fled.

"They didn't stop HYDRA taking your mother!"  
\-------------------

Morse burst into May's office. "Skye's in Milwaukee and she's not alone!"

"Teleported?" May stepped away from Coulson, wiped at her cheeks.

"Two teleports into an abandoned office building. Two people each time, second one was Skye. Guess who owns the building." Morse looked between Coulson and May.

"Now we go." May said, mouth crooking up as she moved out her door.

Coulson followed. Morse followed him.

\-------------------

Phil, Tripp, Bobbi, and Melinda fanned out in the dilapidated hallway. He read the floor directory when he came to it. Doctor C. Johnson, 4th floor, Suite G. He flashed hand signs and headed for the stairs. Mack was taking one for the team having been left with Simmons and Fitz.

RATTATTAT

"Report!"

May came onto comms. "Company!"

At the next landing, figures burst through the window. They looked like SHIELD so three guesses they were HYDRA. Bobbi took two of them and he got the third. More staircase to climb.

\---------------

"What's that?!" It was rhetorical, Skye could recognize automatic assault weapons.

"Time for us to leave." He repacked his father's bag, palming two scalpels. He flung a framed print aside and spun the dial of a safe, taking out cash and a pistol.

Skye grabbed the pistol, giving it a quick lookover. Not ideal, but it'd do. "Which way?"

Cal smiled, then opened the door.

\-------------

Phil arrived to find the main HYDRA force being mauled by Cal. He saw Skye, and then she vanished with a man he'd swear had no eyes. He knocked Cal out with a night night and a heel to the side of the head.

Melinda strode to him from the other end of the hall. "What do we do about them?" Some of the HYDRA were alive and likely to stay that way. The ones that didn't face Cal.

"Call Talbot. He knows HYDRA isn't SHIELD." He pulled Cal up. "Tripp, help me with this."

\-----------------

"That was my team!" Skye was back in Afterlife. Fake Shield had gotten between her and her father. She feared what havoc he'd bring to the team.

"I was sent to retrieve you, not sort out that mess." Gordon stumbled as he walked away, someone coming to his support.

London approached, parting the gathering crowd. "It's not easy being an elevator."

She shook her head as the barely a joke constituted for her. "Let me guess, I'm wanted somewhere I'm not."

London nodded and extended his hand and waved. They walked, entering a room with the most technology she'd seen in her visits to Afterlife.

Jiaying looked her over, and Skye had a hard time meeting her gaze. Cal's description painted such a vivid picture.

"SHIELD is calling again."

Skye was hopeful, then realized it was more HYDRA in false packaging. They said they would be sending a medical team to assess the population, that they were responding to the earthquakes. Jiaying looked at her. Skye shook her head.

Jiaying nodded at the communications technician. "SHIELD, that will not be necessary. There has been no effect on populated areas. Thank you for your concern." She shook her hand in a chopping motion.

The message repeated ominously, still couched in humanitarian terms and ignoring Jiaying's transmission.

"That's HYDRA, not my friends."

"I know. Your friends couldn't be this close yet. These people will require an appropriate greeting."

Skye realized she'd returned just in time for war.


	5. Chapter 5

"ETA?" Phil peeked into the flight compartment.

"Go sit." Melinda relented, "How is it back there?"

"Jemma's keeping Dr. Johnson sedated. Everything is being field-stripped, and I could hang weapons racks on the tension."

"Sit beside me and be useful then."

He slipped into the co-pilot's seat. He took a five minute mindfulness break. He looked over, a little surprised to see Melinda's brown eyes looking at him.

"Sleep, Phil. That's how you can be useful."

It was her op, so he did.

He woke up to hell's fury or FitzSimmons' best approximation. By the time he stepped back Bobbi and Jemma had Cal under additional lockdown, while Tripp rendered first aid round robin. "What happened?"

Mack answered, "He's a hard man to keep down. Not sure how he's carrying oxygen in his chemical stream."

"Go keep May company." He took the spot vacated, feeling rested for his nap. "Report."

"Mack's assessment is spot on, he came round because I'm trying not to kill him. He needs to breathe deeper, his red blood cells are that infrequent." Jemma tucked some hair behind her ear.

That explained the lack of restraints. They hadn't a straitjacket rated for Cal conscious. "Be prepared to use that against him." He looked to Fitz, who held his gaze. "Morse, see if you can find any chatter." She moved forward, while Tripp cleaned up, stuffing used gauze into one inside out glove before pulling the other off and over the first.

\---------------

Jiaying prepared the presentation box, the Terrigenesis crystals fitted into two perpendicular layers. They hadn't isolated the Diviner metal out entirely. This wasn't the disadvantage it had been. She knew they intended to use them as weapons. She did too.

The Kree would be coming. There would need to be more Inhumans to fight them. HYDRA in using the crystals as weapons would instigate a mass transitioning. It was a desperate action.

\---------------

Skye hacked the Afterlife perimeter curtain; she was accessing telemetry, communications, everything happening around the enclave. HYDRA had already entered. It was hard to say how long it would suit them to pretend nicely they were SHIELD. She'd seen what happened when they were rough to pin the blame on SHIELD.

That, she realized the weird energy signature was the quinjet Coulson had arrived in. She'd played with some of the fun spy-tech after he'd left her. Might be Starktech; was Starktech, might be the same as the Iron Man repulsors or Reactor(tm).

\-----------------

Mack tuned in the UHF signal. It was coming from their destination. What was GI Joe doing here? He smiled. "I've found Skye, she's into their computers." He considered a moment, did some investigation. "They've got company." No way to tell if this was more of the cell they danced with in Milwaukee.

May flipped on the intercom. "Be sharp, might be welcoming committee."

Fitz popped in, "You, need." He stated to Mack.

"You've got an idea?"

He nodded his head, grinning.

Mack exhaled and extracted himself from the cockpit.

He let Tripp slip past him as he headed into the back. Fitz had gotten much better at typing, so sometimes he could be much clearer than had been true- his hands couldn't keep up when it came to building things though. It was naturally disconcerting. He took a look, and it became clear why he was grinning. "Did you just come up with this?"

"That we could make the modification."

Oh, no, no. "That's--" Okay, they could. But only because May was flying. If they built it fast enough. "Bobbi, we'll need your hands too."

"What?"

"We're cloaking!" Fitz was beaming.

\---------

"We're going to do what?!" She looked at Phil again in the co-pilot's seat.

Phil understood why he'd been chosen for this mission. He was the least needed to activate the cloak and of no use building it. That he had known Melinda the longest was actually immaterial.

"Fitz can make the quinjet invisible and it can go online while we're in-flight."

"I understood that part. It was the 'interrupt power' while in-flight that concerns me. By concern I mean what the fuck are they thinking?"

"That you can manage the landing. Look, you'll be making the approach in a blind spot, they'll splice in the cloak, you'll land the quinjet. Without instruments." He said the last more quietly.

"Without instruments? Of course."

"I didn't say they had everything worked out, just that they can cloak the quinjet. The instrumentation for the quinjet will be fine; it's seeing outside that's at issue."

"Fine. But I get Tripp as co-pilot."

"I'll send him back."

\--------------

Phil breathed in through his nose and exhaled out his mouth, one hand on his knee. Cal regained consciousness and sucker-punched him. Head-butted. He'd done it just as they were landing, popping out of the quinjet. No one was looking to see him manifest.

Jemma had reprogramed a neural mask, so he was virtually invisible. He had three objectives. Keep Cal from harming anyone, prevent Cal from alerting Hydra to their presence and actually recapture Cal. If he could help Skye or halt HYDRA, that would be positive unless it conflicted with his objectives.

His hope, was Cal wouldn't start at taking a hostage. This meant his primary task was to funnel Cal away from any HYDRA and civilians. He could do that.

He could take out HYDRA operatives. Hide the bodies. It was part of his skill-set.

How many HYDRA were in Afterlife? These weren't their best recruits.

Cal found him. This had gotten old. Cal had no form; Phil was a better fighter. Cal when he connected, it hurt. Phil could only take so much cumulative damage. He needed to succeed before he exceeded that amount of damage.

Capturing Cal would be a good way to stop taking damage. He looked for means. Getting in close wasn't an option. Abandoned factories, this was the fight made for them. Ducking while standing in front of a stone wall worked well too.

He found that moving too fast made him more obvious. It could be used against Cal. As could Cal's anger.

\--------------

Skye was not sanguine about Hydra's pantomime of Indexing. It was too spot on, making it clear that at least some of these men were embedded in SHIELD before the fall.

She looked at the faux agent carrying the ornate box and then toward her mother. It was too small to have anyone hiding in it. Unless someone had that as a power. She hadn't met that many of the Inhumans. Was that why Jiaying was looking so, unreadable?

That they were sorting people between the powered and the not, that was reminiscent of something else entirely. She recognized a few 'falsehoods', such as London put among the non-powered.

\--------------

Mack right now rued not being a field agent. Morse, Tripp and May were infiltrating the HYDRA craft to knock out their communications and take out their engines. He on the other hand was at ground zero with FitzSimmons.

It was a quiet sort of brinksmanship. Genteel. He should have read Tolkien more recently. Neither of them fit the way they were used to; how they had been was out of his ken, but that they kept catching where they'd had flow was obvious.

"Would you just congratulate each other already?" It did make them look at him, but it was preferable to the perpetual avoidance.

"Thanks for the assist, cloaking the quinjet."

"Your work was instrumental in my modification of the neural mask."

This must be part of their dynamic; talking was better than the freezeout that had been happening. It made for less awkward systems checks-- he'd like to fine tune the cloaking device, building it in-flight and quickly installing it meant it was kludge, but for now making sure it wouldn't compromise any systems was priority.

\--------------

Cal should be attracting more attention. For that matter, someone should be missing the HYDRA he'd waylaid. Phil decided the question needed answers and directed the fight towards the main buildings.

He saw where all the people were. It was more uncanny seeing so many 'SHIELD' agents in one place, especially forming people into columns and rows. Forming two groups, one mostly children.

"Cal. That's what we need to be fighting." Phil kept moving, slow enough not to reveal himself, and mostly keeping away from Cal.

"Daisy?"

For now, he wouldn't contradict Cal. "Your daughter needs you. Will you allow I know my job?"

"Where do we start?"


	6. Chapter 6

They had sabotaged both communications and engines so HYDRA wouldn't notice until it was too late. It still looked like they were on-grid, amazing what spoofing could do. Mission achieved May, Morse and Tripp headed for the quinjet.

Started to anyway. There was a lot of noise, including weapon fire so they fanned out to approach. There were children being herded in various directions by locals, there were false flag SHIELD HYDRA trying to maintain control over prisoners. May didn't like this.

Cal Johnson was in the thick of it. He was covered in blood, and from the bodies, it was doubtful much of it was his own.

HYDRA started dropping people. Cal paid it no heed. Skye was screaming, the earth was shaking. That did distract HYDRA, and several dropped as if they'd been tased.

They started picking off HYDRA, letting them run if it was towards their transport.

May opened her comm. "Simmons, we've got wounded. Get out here as soon as can be managed."

"Roger. Simmons out."

\--------------

Jiaying looked at the chaos around her. Cal was lost in a haze of the pumped drugs that gave him phenomenal strength and stamina. There were hostages, her people, to consider. There was only one way to stop him. She grabbed him one hand to each side of his face and drew his life from him. He fought and she pulled, reeling it into herself.

She caught him under the arms before his body could drop. That Agent Coulson, London, her own daughter took on the HYDRA agents was distant, as if the world was wrapped in paper and there was just her and what remained of Cal.

\------------

Phil watched the flung ship drop into the valley and the waters below. That was one way to handle things. A shadow passed overhead. What now?

When his eyes adjusted he recognized the rappelling forms; it was distinctive training. He heard in his ear, over comms, "This is the James Morita. Advise on your situation."

"Who is your captain?" He knew of the ship, it had the same lift systems as the old helicarriers-

"Phil Coulson, this is Victoria Hand. You need help or not?"

"You might not know this, but you were killed."

"Once in awhile, you get lucky. I was overbooked, had a Life Model Decoy. I thought it was supervising my agents I didn't entirely trust. Turned out it was yours. Direct the landing party, I'll brief you once I'm on the ground."

He got to work, dispatching until he reached a squad leader he could give wholesale orders and ask who was the next rung up. Phil repeated, this time instructing where he could found. He returned to Jiaying and Skye.

"Is he--" Cal was on the ground, arms crossed over his chest.

"Yes." Jiaying stood from her crouch. "Who are these people?"

"Let's call them real SHIELD."

"SWORD." Hand was in a smart suit. "General O'Neill sends his regards."

Phil was taking a rain check to react to that.

Hand asked, "What's been causing the tremors, NORAD is concerned."

"Oh, just another miracle. You've met Skye."

"Hi." Skye waved.

Phil knew the signs of shock too well. He waved over a corpsman. "Hand, I need time to coil up my loose ends, but I do want to hear just what you've accomplished."

"Coulson, you do that." She walked away.

"I still don't get her." Skye was wrapped in a blanket and sipping from a juice bag.

That was Victoria Hand's special power. Jiaying's was the one he needed to know more about. He walked over to her. "What did you do?" He'd seen it, but what he'd seen- He didn't know.

"Cal is part of me now. Like the village, like the elders before it."

Phil weighed that. "I've got a plan, but you need to talk to your daughter, say what she needs to know." He watched her accept a blanket and a juice bag, before she settled in with Skye.

Agents came to look at the body by him. "Bag him. Calvin Johnson. Make sure the body's on lockdown." 

"Yes, Sir."

He intercepted Melinda, Tripp and Bobbi. Mack and Leo joined them, Jemma ordering corpsmen and triaging.

Raina was escorted past by two agents wearing dog training gauntlets.

\-------------

"Phil." Victoria Hand looked up from her bentwood desk.

"Vic." He sat on the slat-made chair.

"I thought you were with the Avengers."

Phil started to speak. As he expected, she intercepted.

"At the time Garrett was being taken in, I was very busy, but didn't trust all of my men. So, I sent an LMD to keep an eye."

He shouldn't have sent Grant. Mistakes had been made, some years ago, some more recently.

"General O'Neill," Phil prompted. He'd never met the man, but few were made a pilot and then remade special ops. Victoria wasn't biting, he must not have clearance. "Got S.W.O.R.D. memorized?"

"Sentience World Organized Research and Defense."

Phil nodded and extended his hand. "Thanks for the assist."

Victoria took his hand and shook. "Tell Captain America the same, from me."

\------------

Phil nodded at the guards and entered the cabin. "Jiaying."

She stood. "Yes."

He pulled out a small device from his inside breast pocket, slipping on shades. "Please look into the light."

\---------

Phil tracked down Mack below. It had been a difficult mission and he'd only had to step into it. Mack hadn't had the luxury.

"What is all this?" It looked like an Attic Angel sale before the tables were dressed.

Mack turned around. "Everything movable from Afterlife. They're being relocated, this lot hasn't been checked out so it's here."

Considering the powers of some of their guests, procedure seemed a bit quaint. Large items were stowed variously, plastic totes stacked and shelved, all tagged with scan blocks. Some also had marker drawn labels. He found the manifest reader and punched in Jiaying's name. He'd have to pack what she was taking to her new life.

The frigate rolled and Phil's sky-legs served him well. One of the totes slid free and popped open. Improbably a terrigen crystal spilled out, wobbling as it fell. Phil ran, flung himself to the floor, closed his hand around the smack. The stone scale wrapped over the back of his hand, past his wrist. "Wait, Mack!"

Mack pulled his axe-swing. 

Phil second-guessed himself as the stone crossed from his shoulder to his clavicle. Pieces then dropped from his fingertips. He walked over to the tote's contents and found a small box with his other hand, as shards plinked against the deck. He nestled the crystal in once his hand was free, then unbuttoned his cuff and leaned over so the sloughed detritus could fall out rather than into his shirt.

"Um." Mack edged away still holding onto the fire axe. He realized it as Phil stood up, replacing the tool. "That-"

"Was fortunate. I don't know the new form system." He looked up at the ventilation grill. If the crystal had smashed...

"You're under quarantine until Simmons says otherwise. As is this room."

"Good call. I'm going to sit down." His side was going to bruise. It could have been worse. Telling Clint wasn't going to be fun. He wondered how long Simmons would keep him here.


End file.
